The Microsoft System Center Management Suite is designed to enable the IT administrator to seamlessly manage both the physical and virtual infrastructure. The Microsoft System Center Enterprise Suite consists of these components:
Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. Provides management of both Microsoft and VMware VMs. VMM can also manage other virtual assets such as templates and VHDs and can perform P2V and V2V migrations.
Operations Manager 2007 R2. Provides health monitoring for both physical and virtual servers as well as Microsoft servers like SQL Server, Exchange and SharePoint. In addition, Ops Mgr can monitor other third-party applications like SAP using management packs.
Configuration Manager 2007 R2. Deploys OSs, applications, and updates across the enterprise. Configuration Manager can also keep track of hardware and software inventories.
Data Protection Manager 2007. Backs up and restores server OSs as well as server applications such as Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange, and SharePoint.
Microsoft recently released an update to this suite called the Microsoft System Center Datacenter Management Suite. The primary difference is that the Datacenter suite is licensed per core.
